Albertina Nakale
Windhoek-There are calls to adjust the compensation in relation to loss of human life to N$10,000 for funeral arrangements, and N$500,000 for death reimbursement for injuries sustained by wildlife animals.
These recommendations were revealed by Weich Mupya yesterday, a committee member of the National Council standing committee on Habitat on the public hearings conducted on the motion on Huma-Wildlife Conflict (HWC) in the regions from September 9 to October 6.
The committee also recommended a trust be introduced that would take care of all losses incurred due to HWC. “Effect, therefore, allowances of N$5000 for kids and N$1000 for school going ones per month. The grant payments to continue up to the age of 21 years,” Mupya told the National Council.
The committee found that the current compensation scheme in relation to the current National Policy on HWC Management of 2009 was overwhelmingly scoffed at by all witnesses in all the places where hearing sessions were run.
He said in the Zambezi and the two Kavango regions, issues involving loss of human life were almost indistinguishable in terms of the contexts, the agents of violence and the fashion in which the violence on human beings took place.
Further, he noted motives that put residents into harm’s way originated from the insufficiency of food sources and other services such as portable water.
“People descended on rivers to access water for consumption also for food sources such as fish and some consumable water lilies. Crocodiles and hippopotamuses attack were quite frequent in the Zambezi and in the Kavango East Regions,” he revealed.
Equally, he noted, in the Zambezi and Kavango regions, low-socio-economic situation of many rural women saw these people lose their lives as they frequented the riverside in search of reeds that grew by the riverside. Some forms of losses to human life came about as a result of attacks human beings suffered from elephants that encroached upon villages especially during night.
For livestock attack compensation, they proposed that all compensation should encompass calves, heifers, cows, bulls and oxen, and the offset amounts were established.
They were established that compensation for a cow (low quality breeds) be compensated for N$8,000, bulls (low quality breeds) for N$10,000, goat (high quality) N$2,000, pig N$2,000, donkey N$1,500, calf (0-6 months) N$1,000, calf (6-12 months) N$2,500, cow (best breeds) N$15,000, bull (best breeds) N$20,000 TO n$25,000, sheep N$2,200, goat (low quality breed) N$1,000 while a horse can fetch N$5,000.
He said the compensation should be inclusive of all places where such cases occur, that is either in the kraal or anywhere on the grazing areas. For crops, the committee recommend that an amount of N$1,500 per quarter of a hectare be compensates while an amount of N$6,000 to be paid per hectare.
They recommended to the ministry of Environment and Tourism to respond quicker to HWC concerns and that responses to loos of human life and injuries be carried out on helicopters.